Alimony/Spousal Support

Focus on the challenging aspects of restructuring your family while we ensure you get the support you deserve

Spousal support, or alimony, may be requested as part of a divorce, legal separation, annulment, or protection order.

Our assertive and experienced spousal support lawyers have over 40 years of collective experience. We can help you negotiate a support amount with your current or former partner, and if needed, bring your spousal support request to the court.

As is true with respect to child support, California judges use a formula to calculate an appropriate amount of spousal support. The judge will also consider factors enumerated in California Family Code section 4320.

These include:

How long was the marriage

Each person’s needs based on their standard of living during the marriage

What each person can afford to pay

Effects of a job on the children, age, and health of each person

Debts

Whether one partner helped the other advance his or her education or career

Existence or nonexistence of domestic violence

Tax impact of spousal support

With respect to domestic violence by the spouse who is to pay the support, the judge will take into account whether the person who is to receive the support experienced emotional distress.

In determining spousal support, the judge’s goal is to keep each partner close to the standard of living he or she had during the marriage, while putting him or her closer to being self-supporting within a reasonable time period. In determining how long spousal support is appropriate, a judge may look not only at the length of the marriage, but also at the situation of the spouse who is requesting support. The court will look at his or her professional skills, the current job market, need for further education, and whether that spouse devoted him or herself to taking care of the household during the marriage and is therefore impaired for purposes of job-seeking now.

A reasonable period of time for paying spousal support can be half the length of the marriage if the marriage lasted less than 10 years, but variations are left to the judge’s discretion. Long-term marriages may not have an end date to spousal support. Like a child support order, a spousal support order stays in place until the court changes the terms of it, ends it, or when the terms of the order dictate the end. Spousal support can also be terminated if one of the former spouses dies or if the person receiving the support remarries or enters a domestic partnership.

If you fall behind in your spousal support payments, interest charges are added at the rate of 10% per year. This is not a matter of judicial discretion. Further, if a court believes you are able to pay, but not paying, you may be found in “contempt of court,” which can sometimes lead to a jail sentence. Moreover, if you fail to make a significant number of payments, your wages can be garnished to cover the amount in arrears. Spousal support debts cannot be erased by bankruptcy.

Under California law, spousal support is a serious obligation. Therefore, it is important to persuade the court of your position from the outset. The guidance of experienced family law attorneys from Brown Dahan makes a big difference with regard to what you must ultimately pay or be paid under the terms of a court order.

Child Custody

Prepare a plan for the children's living accommodations and how to divide their time between parents